The Dalek century
by Hamfast Gamgee
Summary: This is a tale more about the Daleks and the Galaxy they were in rather than the Doctor himself so be warned. Still, the Doctor often bemoans the fact that he is the last of the Timelords. This tale takes a look at why the Doctor had to destroy the Daleks. Please Read and Review, thanks, Ham
1. The first encounter

The Dalek Century 2900

This is a tale about Daleks and their effect upon the Galaxy rather than the Doctor himself. In fact, he doesn't personally appear in it, though he does affect the story. Still, the Doctor often bemoans the fact that he is the last of the Timelords. This tale looks at the evil which the Daleks were at the time and the fact that whilst he did destroy the timelords in doing so he might well have saved the rest of the Galaxy. The Galaxy that is, not just Earth! Please read and review, thanks, Ham

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'So the Galaxy-wide celebrations have gone as planned. A general outpouring of joy and satisfaction. The Galaxy has been in peace and prosperity for decades, even centuries now. Intelligent species across the stars share the Galaxy in harmony. Freedom and democracy are the norm in the known sectors. Many of the problems in the past due to abuse of power, issues of nationalism, religious intolerance, inter-species war or various forms of suppression of race or sex or economy are, thankfully, things of the ancient past. In general we shudder to think now of what people had to endure in dark years gone by. But enough of such gloomy thoughts! A toast and a celebration for the peace which the Galactic peoples have earned.'

Captain Yates switched of the com on his ship with a smile. The man making the address, an Osman actually, President Kentuck was known to be something of an airhead to be honest and a mild figure of fun. Still, as the position of galactic President was largely ceremonial and symbolic this scarcely mattered. Back to business. Yates was in charge of an exploring ship in one of the uncharted systems but he knew a thing or two about current affairs. Not that there was a great deal to know. The President was right about Galactic peace and plenty. In fact, some made the argument that the Galaxy was too much at peace and that a bit of shaking up or conflict would not be a bad thing. Yates wasn't sure about this!

'All systems steady,' his lieutenant said to him as the vessel, The Tennant, moved to the planet's yellow and red atmosphere. He was Captain of a fairly simple exploratory systems craft. looking for resources on uninhabited and unexplored worlds such as this one. The work was routine if a little dull. 'We are officially now entering planet s-947-p,' his Lieutenant informed. routinely Yates thanked her but was feeling a bit bored with this dull operation. Nothing much was on so he just on an off-chance checked out the number with any references to previous missions. There hadn't been many in this sector. But he did discover it had been given a name which his department had not officially ratified. It was called Skaro. A strange name. For some utterly irrational reason Yates felt a shiver of fear at the name Skaro.

If he had the time to think harder about this, there would have been a reason. Some of his crew were Human. Humans like much of the Galaxy had been involved in an nasty genocidal warfare with them in centuries past. Their homeworld had even been once occupied by them. But this all happened long ago, before Yates's grandparents were born. Even the Silvianss had moved of their ancient homeworld for geographic reasons. Not of much relevance for Yates's comfortable life.

He shrugged his shoulders. He was rather old for such superstitious thoughts, he thought been 28! It seemed unnecessary anyway, at first, as the ship landed without incident. About 8 people piled out to start analyzing the surface. All went well. In fact some data looked quite promising. Then he noticed something on the sensors. A small, unidentified metallic, object was identified next to those on the ground, with signs of life. 'Susan, unidentified object on your way!' he warned her though still not too concerned, the landing party were well-armed and trained for the unlikely event of an emergency. But Lieutenant Susan, a Silvian could now see the metal creature. It was a surprise because this planet was officially uninhabited. Susan hailed it in a variety of languages, offering peace and friendship. But it moved towards them in a menacing manner unacknowledging her advances.

It was a fairly small, metallic, bluey-silver round thing with 3 suckers prodding from its body, one from its head. It looked at the landing party. One of the men, a rather bad-tempered chap for this period of pax-galactica held his rifle up to his shoulder. 'I just don't like this... thing,' he declared. Then the creature fired a blast of energy from one of its suckers. To the watching Yates's utter astonishment and fear a bolt of deadly energy hit the man square in the chest, killing him in an instant. Then it took on the rest of the landing party, slaying 3 of them in a minute.

The party fought back but it proved a tougher creature than anyone imagined. In fact only the Lieutenant and one more of the party survived, though the metallic creature itself was destroyed. Yates was horrified by this turn of events. With such a casualty list, recently unheard of in such a mission, it was impossible to continue it. Captain Yates ran the image of the creature he had encountered through the computer records. He found that it matched that of Dalek. Again, Yates felt an irrational thrill of fear at the name. It was an old name, which in centuries gone by had wrecked terror in large parts of the Galaxy. 'The sooner we get off this planet the better,' Susan said to him and he had to agree.

'I hope you drive this properly, miss, female drivers,' Yates said, but he was joking. A few of both, sexes thought they had superior attributes, but this was rather rare and very frowned upon. In fact in the Galaxy all of the sexes were roughly equal much to the Galaxy's benefit. Though, curiously, it was only the Humans from earth that ever did have such a sexual divide in their society in ancient times. Though for other species, sexual issues could be... complicated! A short distance away was the home ship with battle facilities as good as anywhere in the Galaxy, though they weren't expecting action, peace been the norm throughout the galaxy for decades. Still, Yates thought it would be needed. 'More... Daleks on the way!' he cried as sensors from his ship indicated more small, Daleks rising from the planets surface at them.

The Ship was a mighty one, though part of a local force rather than a galactic one. Still, it seemed that it should have made short work of less than a dozen small Daleks. But as Yates watched the Daleks fought with a ferocity which the Galaxy hadn't seen for decades. They were swift, hard for the ships guns to spot, and then when they fired, hit the ship with a deadly power. Then, to Yates and Susan's watching horror, the ship was destroyed by a Dalek blast and exploded in a ball of flame in the atmosphere to few survivors. That was enough for them, not taking chances, the Tennant sped away into hyperspace.

Yates did wonder what it was about the Daleks that made them so hard to fight, but as it happened he was one of the few to wonder that. The power and danger that the Daleks might have posed was ignored for now, though it later became a matter of debate as to what, in that early stage, could actually have been done. Skaro was declared too dangerous for exploration and the sector was declared off limits for travel for those few that might have decided to travel in that border sector of the Galaxy.

2909

Report to Galactic Council on Thals contribution to Anti-Dalek force. All of our preparations are in place. But, naturally, casualty figures are unpredictable. We hope to return but with the Daleks, it isn't guaranteed.' The Thal Lieutenant commander sighed as his black-skinned fingers entered his report. He looked out nervously from the mother ships window. They were just passing the wreckage of a destroyed and broken ship. One destroyed by Daleks.

He was right to be nervous. Although he was in a fleet that was the mightiest that the Galaxy had seen for decades, containing Silvians, Human, Destryi's. Ironians, Kalgans, Osmans and others they were facing the Daleks! The date was close enough to the anniversary of the first major Dalek assault. The commander shivered at the memory. He had been there. The Daleks had come from Skaro which most had thought deserted, then ignored. But in a sudden and awesome assault, they had attacked and destroyed much of the neighbouring nation of Kalgon.

Actually, only the major Dalek assault had come from Skaro. Some colonies had been hidden on other nearby worlds, awaiting the order to attack. As much of the Galaxy's fleet as possible had been gathered, but this proved not enough against such devastating creatures. In fact, gathering all of the Galaxy's fleet proved not to be wise. Some Daleks were destroyed, but it took nearly a hundred shots to destroy a Dalek ship, but one blast from one of them could exterminate any other vessel.

The Daleks then attacked world after world, terrifying the entire east Galaxy with their slaughters, cruelty, and harsh cries of 'Exterminate!' There were those who had argued that one of the reasons that the Daleks attacks had proved so devastating. Military spending was at a low level in the galaxy at the time, some suggested more military muscle would have proved more effective. Lieutenant Detol was not convinced by this argument. An awful lot of the conventional weaponry proved useless against the Daleks, more of those might just have well proved to be white elephants. Indeed, some cleverly adapted civilian crafts turned out to be as much use as military ones.

Lieutenant Detol finished his report, looked out upon his fleet and considered all things Daleks. He did remember that recently matters were helped by the destruction of a large Dalek force on Allendham. The exact method was an official secret, but he was aware of it, been nearly there. It was an example of someone using non-conventional military means. A mysterious agent had helped. An unremarkable looking but remarkable man known only as the Doctor.

He had used the unique conditions of Allendham to create a planetary wide explosion to destroy the Dalek force. Of course, this had destroyed half the planet as well! Fortunately it was an uninhabited one! Detol remembered that the Doctor was an old man but active and gentle. But also rather well pleased with his contribution, which turned out to be of modest use and made no attempt to follow it up, vanishing from the scene rather rapidly. But he was a brilliant man and who he was remained a mystery. He had claimed to be a Timelord.

That was a bit of a galactic legend. Not unlike the old Atlantis one on Earth. The Timelords were rumoured to be a powerful people that looked after galactic affairs but were on a planet untouchable by anyone. Most sensible people didn't believe this legend and Detol certainly didn't and had better things to worry. There were not any official reports of anyone visiting the place after all. Anyway, that victory achieved by the Doctor was very brief. New Dalek forces in greater number appeared and assaulted the Galaxy. Which was why this particular fleet was assembled. Everyone thought it would be enough for the Daleks, it was everything the Galaxy could gather and throw at them.

But Detol was amongst the doubters. He knew how tough the Daleks were. He had been part of a fleet taking on the Daleks and had nightmares remembering the event. As it happened there were good and bad points about the battle. The good was that the Daleks were defeated and pushed back to the Skaro system. The threat to galactic civilization was ended. But this came at a terrible price. The casualty figures were horrendous. Nearly half of the fleet was destroyed. It became a by-word for a bloody, terrible battle. Also, the Daleks were not totally defeated. They continued to occupy Skaro which couldn't be taken. And after the destruction of the battle none felt like trying.

Not that that was entirely true. There were those that recognized the danger the Daleks still posed. But there was no way of attacking them. A few people thought they had seen a weakness and launched a daring mission to take on the Daleks in their own space. It was, it seemed, quite a good strategy. None survived this mission, save one who's mind was driven mad with the horror of what the party had encountered. So Skaro endured.


	2. The Galaxy under the Daleks

2920 Trantor - Capitol world of the Galaxy

There was panic on the streets of Trantor. A dalek assault was in full operation. The small, round, metallic creatures were on the surface. The population was trapped. Everyone was making a desperate run for any way of the world they could find. A lucky few found spaceships and were able to blast away to somewhere, anywhere in space, at times not even having time to plot a course with the ruthless enemy on their heels.

5 years ago, the Daleks had attacked and overwhelmed the guard around their sector and advanced across the Galaxy's southern-eastern arm with a terrible speed. They were now indestructible to any thing the Galaxy could throw at them. Any normal weapon Someone even once launched a Nuclear missile at one of their ships and didn't even give trouble to it's defense shields. Many of the population of the subjected worlds fled to Trantor the strongest world in the galaxy and very far away, hoping that distance would be the one thing which the Daleks would struggle to overcome.

But the Daleks advanced at a pace that amazed the Galaxy. Trantor was nearly surrounded and became an enclave. Despite desperate efforts to relieve the world it was soon realizied that it would fall. And now was the time of the final assault. Save for a very few that escaped, most of the civilian that remained were exterminated on the spot or forced to endure the life of Dalek slavery. None survived that for long and life in the Dalek slave pits was unbearable. Death by extermination was kinder.

2930

Admiral Yates was flying out of Alpha Centuri, destination Orion, with a very important package. Yes, this was the same man that had first encountered the Daleks all those decades back. Admiral now thanks to having seen much action in the Dalek wars and as he would admit thanks to the general desperation of the galactic armed forces! Besides, he would rather be a Captain at peace than an Admiral in a Galaxy of desperate war. But what he was carrying could change that. It was some material called Dalekennium. Something scientists reckoned would be fatal to this new brand of Daleks. Looking out at the blue surface of Alpha, there was no Dalek assault at the moment, but the planet, like neighbouring Earth, still showed signs of the last devastating recent one.

The Scientists proved to be right. Dalekennimum was fatel to Daleks. Though saying that the material was discovered more or less by accident. But it turned the tide of the war. For the moment. The Daleks were pushed backed towards their own sector. Trantor was recovered along with most of the Galaxy giving joy and relief. Despite high casualties. The Daleks themselves still had many weapons. But triumph it was and for a while the Daleks withdrew and the Galaxy had a little peace. Until...

2950 Mercia - West of Trantor

'Alert, alert Dalek ships east 45 just out of hyperspace. Sheilds up, run for your lives!' And there was little else this convoy of refugee ships could do. With the Daleks hot on their trial they were in a perilous position. Ten years previously, the Daleks had attacked again out of their enclave around Skaro. They had now perfected a defence against Dalekeinnium and were very hard to destroy. Only a direct missile hit from a space warship on one single Dalek would have some effect.

Sometimes one Dalek would explode in battle, but no one knew why. Some kind of blow-back was the most popular theory. Once a squadron of Thal ships did get to a ship and managed to program it to self-destruct. But as this also resulted in the destruction of the Thal fleet, it wasn't the best option. Once a group of Dalek ships was caught up in a super-nova and even then most of them survived. To add to their indestructible nature the Daleks appeared in numbers never imagined or seen before. The Daleks had re-captured Trantor and were now in control of more of the Galaxy than they had ever been before. They had recorded victory after victory. They had a number of allies or slave races in their use. And of course they were not above using spies or traitors in their pay to aid them in sometimes dramatic ways.

The refugees were aiming for a section of the Galaxy on the far edge rumoured to be free from the Daleks . Protected by a series of Black hones, asteroids, exploding stars and magnetic waves. In normal times this would be considered to be too dangerous, but now it was thought better than encountering the Daleks. To make matters worse the convoy was attacked by Cybermen a species not allied or as dangerous as Daleks but deadly in their own manner at least against a convoy as weakened as this one was. But the convoy prevailled thanks in part to aid from a mysterious stranger called the Doctor and his assistant Rose, though Rose saved the day as much as the Doctor in this case. This Doctor was the same man that had helped against the Daleks earlier in the century. Though no-one realized this. One person that finally died in this scrap was back to Captain Yates.

2970

Far North-Western edge of Galaxy

To unknown request for aid. We received your message on 25th March. In our situation, we are in fact please to hear that there are sectors of the Galaxy not under Dalek control as we are. Last we were aware, the Daleks were in control of a large majority of the Galaxy. Those invincible , merciless creatures that subject all other species to slavery. We are a few that refuse to submit to such treatment. Though we cannot aid you. We don't even know for sure if this message will get to you, through light-years of Dalek control stars. We don't have weapons that can seriously hurt the Daleks.

We survive by hiding on planets or moons that are considered uninhabited. And that the Daleks cannot be everywhere. But they do often pass us. And life can be tough living in fear in this manner. The Daleks only ever get stronger and expand. Each year more worlds fall under their rule. We are trapped here, if we are ever descovered we would be massacred and we have been raided more than once and have had to flee into hiding with many casualties. So, sorry and good luck.


	3. Aftermarth

The Dalek century - final part

The final part of this Dalek story. I'm afraid it still doesn't really feature the Doctor though he is subtily important and does get a mention. This tale features more on the effects of his actions. He does often get upset about the destruction of his own people. But perhaps that event was only part of the bigger picture. He might not have even been aware, but he could have been comforted had he known that the Timelords were destroyed as part of a purpose. There was the rest of the Galaxy after all! Please read and review if you could, thanks, Ham!

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3005 - Trantor - Galactic Capital world.

Researcher Stephen Benton was leaving the Dalek research establishment. He had just been laid off. It would be an inconvenience, nothing more. There were plenty of other jobs around. In fact, it would be a relief to be out of Dalek research. Although it was hopeful and interesting, it was also a bit confusing sometimes and a little worrying to think about how close the Galaxy had come to falling to those dreadful creatures that had once dominated much of it.

But Daleks had not been seen for twenty years. And whilst they had disappeared before, never for this long so now most people thought they would never come back. Although as his boss had recently pointed out how still remained one of the biggest mysteries in Galactic history. Around 20 years ago the Galaxy was on its knees. The Daleks had conquered three-quarters of it and were seemingly on their final push. At least there was nothing any non-Dalek had that could oppose them. Despite, those races not been Dalek subject ones, the Galaxy been united in its opposition, the rest of the Galaxy was waiting to be conquered.

Then, in an astonishingly quick time, less than a month, the Daleks vanished. One moment the Daleks were the supreme beings of the known universe, the next totally gone. Benton shook his head thinking about it. Naturally, people were cautious at first. After years of retreat they probed forward slowly, wondering what had happened to the Daleks and if they would return. But the Galaxy proved empty of them. The shattered Peoples emerged from their enclaves and recolonized the broken Galaxy. Though no-one knew the reason for the Daleks disappearance. It was one of the mysteries of the Galaxy a little like the famous disappearance of the dinosaurs on Earth. Although this case was far more recent.

His boss complained that as time had passed people were tending to forget about how deadly they been hence the less money been devoted to research upon them. Steve did not quite agree with her. Galactic resources were finite after all and they could not spend forever shadow boxing an enemy with powers much of which was still something of a mystery. And an enemy which might never re-appear. Steve didn't mind that people were deciding to finally focus on other matters. Even though his boss did sometimes mutter that the current generation, 'Wouldn't even recognize a picture of a Dalek,'

'Good for them if they can live in peace,' thought Steve. But he was leaving a large part of his life behind, so he had a beer and thought about all things Daleky one last time. Although of all the research they had done, he did wonder how much use some of it would be. The only thing, after all, that Scientists had ever found that was of any use against the Daleks was Dalekinnium and that was discovered pretty much by accident, though Science did help in its application.

Now the feeling was that if the Daleks did re-appear the Galaxy would be better equipped to fight them. At least now Scientists had discovered what the Dalek hull was made of and how to penetrate it. Much research had been done upon the corpses of some dead Daleks that had remained and even on their home of Skaro, now deserted. 'Well, that's something we can use if they re-appear,' said a woman he knew but one who had the good nature to listen to him and did have an interest in the subject.

She was older than him, nearly twice his age, and had some nasty experiences of Daleks in her youth. She had lived briefly on a Dalek prison planet. She was lucky that the Daleks had disappeared when they had done or else she would never have survived. Or at least the odds were stacked against her. No-one survived Dalek prison planets for long. Only 4%, it was reckoned, lasted over 5 years.

'Yes, it's certainly more information than we have ever had before, but we are assuming that if the Daleks re-appear it will be in the same form as before. They have changed their nature in the past, though it would have now to be quite a dramatic change! How they disappeared is still unknown after all of our Galactic research,' Steve stroked his hair and took a gulp out of his drink, 'We really are no nearer to finding out why it happened, if we did we would tell you!'

'Ah, but would you?' Mary was referring to a conspiracy theory that the rulers of the Galaxy did know how the Daleks were destroyed but were keeping it secret from the population. Why this should be was something that was not explained but it was a theory that was often heard. It was wrong, but it did show how paranoid the Galaxy had become in the subject of Daleks.

'Yes, we would!' said Steve with a smile, 'Do you have any favored theories?'

'A few have merits though I don't believe in the religious one.' That was a reference to the idea that some religious diety or God saved the Galaxy from the Daleks, and indeed that the Daleks had been put upon by the same God as a punishment for the Galaxy's sins a bit like the destruction legends that many civilizations had at the start of their history. One thing was true was that religion of all kinds had expanded since the departure of the Daleks. People were very grateful. 'I go for the 2nd front theory. That somewhere the Daleks were fighting on another front in another Galaxy we know nothing about but their they were defeated. What about you?'

'I think they just ran out of gas! Whatever battery or fuel they were using and we know now that they did use some, ran out. Or as a species they just wore themselves out. Heck, they were fighting the entire galaxy single-handed and winning! That has to some kind of psychological effect. Even for them! Despite the insane nature of the Daleks.' That was as good as explanation as any. Though some had just a feeling that the Daleks were not totally gone and that some activity remained. No evidence for this existed either!

'If Gods weren't involved what about something else mysterious but powerful. The Timelords?'

'An interesting maverick idea. Though there is no proof at all that the Timelords ever existed. Just rumour!'

'Though with much of the Galaxy under Dalek control, proof was hard to get!'

'True, Mary,' laughed Steve.

The real truth that the Daleks were destroyed by the Doctor, but in doing so he destroyed his own people the Timelords as well, would probably never fully be known by the Galaxy. Even the Doctor himself wasn't sure how he had done it as his memory had also been destroyed in the incident. The Doctor still bitterly regrets the destruction of his own species, though they were never that close. Though the rest of the Galaxy were very pleased that he had at least destroyed the Daleks and might well have liked to thank him.

'Then there was that incident on Barcelona,' Steve mused. Steve was referring to the human colony on the planet Barcelona, naturally, where else? which was a remarkable and beautiful planet. It had had a narrow escape from a Dalek fleet. It had been surrounded, bombarded, even had an advanced party of Daleks land upon it. The planet was on the verge of been captured. Then for no apparent reason that Dalek fleet had disappeared. And were never seen again. But they had veered of in battle formation. Hence the theory that they went of to fight someone else in another galaxy, time or even dimension. Naturally, the dimension theory was as insane as the religious one.

But there was evidence that the Daleks had time-travel abilities of a crude nature. Some of the captured devices of theirs indicated that they had travelled a little in time. Perhaps the fleet had gone back or forward in time and never returned. Anyway, Steve's lady companion smiled saying, 'this has been a most enjoyable conversation, but it is a Friday so I would like to have some fun,' Steve waved goodbye to here, he supposed he was trespassing upon her time anyway.

And perhaps it was about time he let go of the Dalek ghost, anyway, he thought. As he looked down on Trantor upon its pleasant streets, lanes, countryside and a river he gave the Daleks one final thought over one more pint. Some of Trantor was high buildings and heavy concrete the way in which some imagined capital worlds to be, but lots of it wasn't. Government was its main industry and some of the capital was very pleasant. After all, it's employees were often well to do and had no desire to live in a city of metal. In some of its woods, one wouldn't even be aware one was on the capital world.

Steve frowned in thought. He didn't know why the Daleks had disappeared so quickly. None did. It was one of the great Galactic mysteries which children across the stars were aware of in their early years. There were various theories as he had discussed ranging from the bizarre to those that were almost accepted by the scientific community. But as he looked at the sky which was becoming clearer, warmer weather was on the way, he was grateful for one thing, that someone did!

The End


End file.
